10.7.26

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Welcome to the reading of the New York Times for Wednesday,
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October 7th, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Dawn Flickinger. We'll start today's
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reading with the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. Discrete. D-I-S-C-R-E-E-T. Discrete.
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It's an adjective. Discrete describes someone who is careful about
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not allowing something to be known or noticed by many people.
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It can also describe something that is not likely to
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be seen or noticed by many people. She was very
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discreet about her personal life. A photographer followed the singer
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at a discreet distance. If you've ever mixed up discreet, D-I-S-C-R-E-E-T,
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and discreet, D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E, you're not alone, which to use when
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writing is tricky to discern. Given their identical pronunciation and
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shared etymology, both terms and their relatives, discern and certain,
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ultimately trace back to the Latin verb senere, meaning to sift, discern, decide, determine.
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Yet despite these similarities, the words have separate, one might
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even say discreet, D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E, meanings. Something or someone described as
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discrete with double E's is unlikely to be known, seen,
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or noticed by many people, as in found a discrete
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way to handle the problem. Discrete with its separate E's
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describes things that are separate and different from each other,
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as in a process broken down into a number of
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discrete steps. A handy mnemonic A handy mnemonic for remembering
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which is which can be found in those E's. The
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T in discreet separates the two E's. Cornell case highlights
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drop in resolved sexual assault cases under Trump. The administration
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has shifted its enforcement of a civil rights law from
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allegations of sexual misconduct to issues like blocking protections for
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transgender students. By Michael C. Bender. In President Trump's first term,
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news reports of sexual abuse allegations at San Jose State
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University prompted a Justice Department investigation that forced the school
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to make extensive policy changes and pay the victims to
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remain under federal monitoring for four years. But the intense
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focus on allegations that a Cornell University student was assaulted
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by multiple men at a fraternity party has barely drawn
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a response from the federal government. The hands-off stance reflects
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the more muted approach that Mr. Trump's administration has taken
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to sexual abuse cases on campuses in his second term.
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I don't know that much about it, Mr. Trump told
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reporters on Thursday in response to a question about the case,
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but Cornell is a fine school and I'm sure they'll
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do what's right. Government officials have not said whether they
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plan to investigate the allegations or the university's response, but
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under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans
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sex discrimination in education and allows federal officials to investigate
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university responses to such cases. The administration's lack of action
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so far on the Cornell case comes amid an apparent
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drop from Mr. Trump's first term in resolved investigations of
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sexual assault, according to a review of public records. Resolved
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investigations are cases that end with a signed agreement to
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remedy violations of civil rights law. The administration has largely
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used Title IX to open dozens of investigations aimed at
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removing protections for transgender students, blocking transgender athletes from participating
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on female sports teams, and eliminating gender-neutral bathrooms from schools.
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during the initial twenty months of mr trump's first term
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the education department's office for civil rights which investigates discrimination
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complaints in schools resolved more than one hundred and fifty
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cases of sexual harassment and sexual violence according to a
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public government database The database does not show investigations that
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remain open. In the first 20 months of Mr. Trump's
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second term, the same database shows the office has resolved
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one case. Julie Hartman, an education department spokeswoman, said the
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department had resolved dozens of sexual harassment and sexual assault cases,
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but declined to provide documents or explain why they were
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not in the database. The New York Times could not
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independently verify the full scope of the department's claim. On Tuesday,
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after the story was published, the Education Department announced it
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was opening Title IX investigations into school districts in eight
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states over allegations of sexual misconduct against students. The Justice Department,
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where civil rights investigators examine allegations of systemic discrimination in
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colleges and universities under Title IX, has seen a similar
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shift away from the sexual assault and harassment cases over Mr.
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Trump's two terms. In addition to the San Jose state settlement,
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which resolved an investigation into the school's head athletic trainer
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abusing female student-athletes. The department of Mr. Trump's first term
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also resolved an investigation into Utah State University after reports
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that the school had failed to respond to numerous reports
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of sexual assaults. In the second Trump administration, the Justice
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Department has not produced anything similar. Civil rights lawyers who
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previously led investigative units at both departments said they would
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have opened investigations into Cornell by now. Catherine E. Lamon,
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who oversaw the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights under
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Presidents Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Barack Obama, said the
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allegations had received a widely tepid response from the university
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and the government. Ms. Lamon said the threshold for resolving
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a federal investigation was whether a school had taken sufficient
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steps to end a hostile learning environment and to ensure
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the discrimination did not persist. It is the school's job
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to ensure that students have equal access to education and
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can learn without discrimination, said Ms. Lamon, now executive director
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of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the
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University of California, Berkeley. That has been a Title IX
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requirement since the law was first passed in 1972. Shahina Simmons,
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who led the Justice Department team focused on civil rights
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in schools under Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, called the
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administration's lack of resolved cases by this point in Mr.
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Trump's term a sign that it doesn't take seriously its
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role vetting sexual assault cases under law. or allegations under
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Title IX. DOJ absolutely would and did look into allegations
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like this, Ms. Simmons said. Our investigations exposed some really
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profound failures by colleges and by campus police, and now
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that avenue for accountability is effectively gone. A spokeswoman for
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the Justice Department, Kirsten Pelz, said the department does not
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generally confirm or deny the existence of investigations. though it
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has announced other civil rights investigations. Protecting women and girls
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remains a top priority, Ms. Pell said, adding that protections
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against discrimination based on sex are fully in force, and
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schools that fail to meet their obligations will be held accountable. Ms. Hartman,
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the Education Department spokeswoman, said the situation at Cornell was
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horrific and should not be politicized to criticize the Trump administration.
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The drop-off in resolved sexual misconduct allegations comes after a
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decades-long political battle in Washington over how to enforce the
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sexual discrimination ban under Title IX. Each of the past
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three presidential administrations has rewritten or attempted to rewrite those
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enforcement rules. In 2011, Mr. Obama's administration issued a public
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letter telling colleges that sexual harassment and assault created an
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environment so hostile that women's access to education is jeopardized
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and violates their civil rights. Mr. Trump's administration rescinded that
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letter in 2017 and rewrote the guidelines, providing more protections
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for people facing accusations. In 2024, Mr. Biden's administration attempted
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to overhaul those rules again, extending protections from sexual discrimination
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to transgender students. A federal court blocked the move, and
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the Education Department announced last week that it had formally
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repealed those changes. But the most significant change to civil
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rights enforcement during Mr. Trump's second term has been his
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push for a broader reorientation of federal investigation targets. Those
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changes include ending the federal government's oversight in dozens of
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school desegregation orders, focusing on anti-Semitism cases that mostly stem
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from anti-Israel protests, and purging programs that promote diversity, equity,
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and inclusion. The administration's shift to using Title IX to
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reverse transgender protections is rooted in a series of executive
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orders Mr. Trump started signing on the first day of
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his second term. The orders have led educators to de-emphasize
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sex discrimination, victims' advocates and civil rights lawyers have said.
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I had one university president ask me if they really
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needed to hire a Title IX coordinator, said Jody Shipper,
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a civil rights lawyer and consultant who in 2004 became
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the first person in that role at the University of
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Southern California. Title IX coordinators generally oversee a university's compliance
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with the federal law's ban on sex discrimination. The university president,
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she said, told her, no one is going to fault
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me if I don't have one. If university presidents think
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their governor doesn't care and that Trump doesn't care, what
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do I even say to that, Ms. Schipper said. At
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the same time, the university's investigation into the rape allegations
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was unfolding. Cornell was among a handful of elite schools
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facing the full force of Mr. Trump's civil rights inquiries
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with very different focuses. On March 20, 2025, the Education
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Department opened an investigation into Cornell's handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations
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tied to the war in Gaza. Four days later, it
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opened a second investigation, this time into allegations of fostering
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anti-white and anti-Asian discrimination with school admissions policies. In April,
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as Cornell administrators were already deep into grappling with the
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gang rape allegation, The Trump administration identified $ 1 billion in
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funding cuts to the university's research grants, federal funding that
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has become the lifeblood for elite research universities, to pressure
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the school into adopting the administration's new discrimination priorities. Cornell
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agreed to some of the changes last fall as part
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of a settlement with the government that shelved the investigations.
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As attention on the Cornell case has mounted, Mr. Trump
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has shown interest in one aspect of the case, the
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appointment by the New York governor of Letitia James, the
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state's attorney general, as a special prosecutor to review allegations
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and the handling of the complaint. Ms. James led a
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civil fraud lawsuit against Mr. Trump and his company in
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2022 that resulted in a massive financial penalty. A federal
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grand jury indicted her on bank fraud and false statement
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charges last October, but a federal judge in November dismissed
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the charges, which Ms. James called baseless and politically motivated.
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When reporters asked on Friday about the appointment of Ms.
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James to look into the Cornell case, Mr. Trump said,
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I feel badly for whoever she's looking at because they
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won't get a fair shake. Soaring instrument prices could stop
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the music at many schools. When a single cello can
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cost $ 1, 000 and a tuba $ 9, 000, tariffs are straining meager
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band and orchestra budgets. By Sydney Ember Jeff Lipscomb, a
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high school orchestra director in Conowa County, West Virginia, has
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been doing a lot of math. For example, he has
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12 cellists but only 10 cellos. If the school district
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gives him a total budget of $ 500 to $ 600 for
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the year, but one new cello costs more than $ 1, 000,
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what should Mr. Lipskin do? What if he needs some
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new violins and violas, too? I've actually had to buy
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instruments out of my own pocket, Mr. Lipscomb said from
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his classroom at South Charleston High School on the first
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Monday of the school year. I just kind of have to.
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Like many music teachers, Mr. Lipscomb has become tuned to
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tight budgets. Lately, though, the cost of instruments has ballooned
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beyond his ability to make do. Pandemic-era supply chain snarls
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lifted prices for goods across the board. President Trump's global
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tariffs further swelled the cost of foreign-made instruments. Then in August,
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the Trump administration proposed additional 25% tariffs on trumpets, tubas,
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and other brass instruments, citing national security threats under a
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provision it had used to impose duties on foreign metals.
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The consequences have reverberated across the country. Higher instrument prices
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are a particular threat to lower-income districts where enrollment and
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budgets are shrinking. An elementary school music teacher in Beaverton, Oregon,
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has considered 3D printing ukuleles because she cannot afford them.
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In Passaic, New Jersey, an arts administrator is doubling down
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on encouraging students to clean and care for their instruments
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so they last longer. The superintendent of a small district
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in Washington County, Pennsylvania, has taken to scouring eBay and
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Facebook Marketplace for used instruments. Proponents of musical education say
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the tariffs are endangering school music programs and threatening to
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push the extracurricular activity out of reach for many families.
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John Milczak, the chief executive of the National Association of
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Music Merchants, a trade group, warned that higher instrument prices
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could lead to empty music classrooms. The camaraderie that happens
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in a community when everyone goes and supports the Friday
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night football game, he said, imagine that without a marching band.
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Some instruments, such as higher-end Fender and Gibson guitars, are
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made in the United States, but most elementary, middle, and
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high schools rely on less expensive beginner instruments that are
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largely made in China. Many school districts own or rent
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instruments they lend to students at no or little cost.
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As Mr. Trump escalated his trade war with China last year,
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music teachers grew wary. Schools were already dealing with a
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confluence of challenges, including the end of federal pandemic aid,
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budget cuts, and declining enrollment. Inflation was driving up costs.
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It's kind of like a perfect storm of all these
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different things happening at once that can cause a bigger mess,
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said Anna Marie Bellino, a seasoned public school arts administrator
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who sits on the executive board of the National Association
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for Music Education, an advocacy group. She said she expected
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that the proposed tariffs on brass instruments would further push
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up prices. An executive of the effective tariff rate on
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instruments in June was about 13 percent, said Colin Hendricks,
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a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
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That was down from a peak of nearly 24 percent
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last September, but more than twice as high as before Mr.
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Trump's second term. Band and orchestral instruments. Instruments have been
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hit the hardest, he said. In the second quarter of
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this year, imports of instruments were down nearly 20% from
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the same period in 2024. Imports of orchestral string instruments,
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including violins, violas, and cellos, dropped 50%. Brass instruments fell 43%.
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It's hitting the horns. It's hitting the strings. It's hitting
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the percussion, Mr. Hendricks said. All of those things combined
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are kind of sapping the available pool of tools that
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we can provide these children to begin their journey. Carolyn
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Langston has been teaching music at low-income elementary schools in
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Oregon for two decades. Her room this year at a
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school in Beaverton has a colorful rug surrounded by a
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rainbow of paw prints to indicate where her students should stand.
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In one corner are patterned drums and other percussion instruments.
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She described her musical philosophy as sing, dance, play. Schools
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like hers will fill the higher instrument prices most. I
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don't even have a budget, Ms. Langston said. Zero money.
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When she wants to buy instruments, or a carpet for
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that matter, she applies for grants, including from a local
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educational foundation. Sometimes she requests money from people directly. She
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considered using a 3D printer to make plastic ukuleles. At
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least they would be more durable. In May 2025, Ms.
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Langston asked the local foundation for $ 700 to replace a
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large bar on one of her xylophones. It's one note
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you can play. It's very loud and very low, she said.
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By the time she went to buy the part that fall,
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the cost had jumped to $ 750. The foundation agreed to
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pay the extra, but the increase stunk. Instruments are more expensive,
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which then squeezes even tighter on somebody like me, she said.
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LaTosha Castellolala, the supervisor of visual and performing arts for
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Passaic Public Schools in northern New Jersey, said many instruments
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had doubled or tripled in price since the pandemic. a
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student saxophone that used to be four hundred and twenty
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dollars is more than nine hundred dollars tubas are at
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least nine thousand dollars and the high school band wants
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four if the proposed brass tariffs go into effect she
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said buying all of them would probably take her five
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or six years by then the would-be tuba players would
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have graduated Students are hard on their instruments, and Ms.
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Castor Law Lawla estimated that each one lasted 10 years
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at most, and often less. Anticipating that cost will continue
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to rise. She is pushing principals for better storage to
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keep instruments functioning longer. She is also emphasizing proper cleaning
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and care to students and parents. She worries above all
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that she will not have enough instruments for all the
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students who want to play. If registration in school music
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programs falls as a result, it could create a domino
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effect where the district pulls funding. We're going to eventually
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hit our rubber meets the road moment, she said. When Mr.
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Lipscomb was growing up, he variously wanted to be a paleontologist,
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an astronaut, or a computer programmer. But from the moment
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he graduated from high school, he dreamed of teaching music.
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He got a college degree, a teaching degree, and a
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master's degree, and then a doctorate in music composition from
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00:19:43.470 --> 00:19:47.730
Louisiana State University. I like how it sounds. I like
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how it makes me feel, he said. I'm normally an
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introverted person, but it's one of the few times that
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I actually enjoy being around people. For 15 years, Mr.
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Lipscomb has taught orchestra classes in Kanawha County's high schools,
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including Capital High School, his alma mater. The only full-time
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orchestra director in the district, he spends a lot of
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time driving from one school to the other. His music
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program is small, typically around 60 students. When he has
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a particularly strong class, he teaches it a challenging repertoire. Otherwise,
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he focuses on scales and technique. The district provides instruments
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for some students who cannot afford to buy or rent them,
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but Mr. Lipscomb's $ 500 to $ 600 annual budget is not enough.
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He spent all of the money he was allocated last
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year and this year on two cellos. One student, a
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freshman viola player, told him shortly after the school year
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began that she had to drop his class because her
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family could not afford to rent her instrument. He said
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he could lend her one free of charge, but she declined. Mr.
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Lipskin worries that rising instrument prices mean the students who
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stay will be stuck playing old instruments. He knows that
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00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:06.200
when children play on instruments that sound bad, they do
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not blame the instruments, they blame themselves. But the district
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is in a budget crunch, in part because of it
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losing students. He wishes he had thought to buy more
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instruments earlier in his career before prices rose too much.
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It's tough for me to say, but you got to
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work with what you've got, Mr. Lipskin said. Unfortunately, a
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lot of these old instruments is what I got. Democrats
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00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:33.940
project a party milestone in Congress. 100 women in the House.
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Democrats are increasingly confident they will have a record number
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00:21:37.789 --> 00:21:40.970
of women serving in the House next year. After backing
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00:21:41.009 --> 00:21:44.069
women in competitive districts, they are now positioned to win.
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By Annie Carney. Democrats pressing to win control of Congress
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in the midterm elections are also reaching for a major
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milestone in their ranks, electing at least 100 women to
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00:21:55.960 --> 00:21:58.920
the House, the most ever in a legislative body that
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00:21:58.980 --> 00:22:03.000
is still heavily dominated by older white men. With female
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candidates competing in many key districts that will determine the
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House majority, the polls showing the party gaining ground in
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00:22:11.140 --> 00:22:14.829
those contests, Democrats are projecting they could have as many
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as 113 women in their ranks next year. I'm incredibly
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confident that we will pass that 100 mark. Representative Teresa
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00:22:23.650 --> 00:22:28.500
Lager-Fernandez of New Mexico, chairwoman of the Democratic Women's Caucus,
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said in an interview, The real issue is how far
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above it do we go? The peak projection of 113
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could only be reached if Democrats won every competitive race,
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including a few that more strongly favor Republicans, a highly
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unlikely scenario even in the best of years. But even
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reaching 100 would be a high-water mark that was unthinkable
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just a generation ago. When EMILY's List, the largest funder
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of female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, was founded
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in 1985, less than 5% of the House Democratic Caucus
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were women. Now it is approaching 50%. We have all
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along in this election cycle put women front and center
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to deliver the House majority, said Jessica Mackler, the president
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of EMILY's List, who noted that women backed by the
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organization make up a majority of toss-up House races. That
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didn't happen by accident. As of Monday, when six new
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candidates were added, 19 out of the 46 Democrats in
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00:23:31.869 --> 00:23:35.660
the party's Red to Blue program that funds top contenders
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in battleground districts are women. Women are going to give
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Democrats the majority in two ways, Ms. Leger-Fernandez said. We're
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going to elect women candidates who will flip the House,
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and it's also women voters who will come out and
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overwhelmingly vote for Democratic candidates, because the two largest hit
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groups by the Republicans' policies have been Latinos and women. Currently,
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there are 97 women in the House Democratic Caucus, including
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two non-voting delegates who represent Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands.
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A record for female representation accounting for around 45% of
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Democratic members. While some are retiring, Democrats expect those who
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remain to be joined by a large crop of women
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running in safe Democratic districts and others who are strongly
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favored to win competitive races in an environment that polls
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show is favorable to their party, resulting in even higher
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numbers next year. The first tier of candidates Democratic leaders
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00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.319
are counting on includes a dozen women who are running
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in open or safely Democratic seats, including Malik Quiroz in Colorado,
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Daria Liza Avila-Shavelier and Claire Valdez in New York, and
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00:24:51.869 --> 00:24:56.549
Stephanie Shaheen in New Hampshire. Three others pressing to flip
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Republican districts are seen as very likely to win. Marnie Vaughn-Wilpert,
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00:25:01.769 --> 00:25:06.079
who is running in a newly drawn California district. Denise Powell,
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00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:10.279
who is seeking a Democratic-trending Nebraska seat currently occupied by
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00:25:10.359 --> 00:25:15.160
Republican Representative Don Bacon, and Rebecca Bennett, who is pulling
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ahead of Representative Tom Keene, Jr., the lawmaker who was
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absent from Congress for over 100 days for what he
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later revealed was a struggle with depression. A dozen more
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women are running in races that the nonpartisan Cook Political
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Report ranks as toss-ups. Ms. Legger said she was confident
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that three or more of them would win in November.
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They include challengers to some of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents,
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including Representatives Rob Brishnahan Jr. of Pennsylvania, Jen Kiggins of Virginia,
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00:25:53.480 --> 00:26:00.279
Derek Van Orden of Wisconsin, Juan Kiscamani of Arizona, Mike
379
00:26:00.339 --> 00:26:06.130
Lawler of New York, and Marionette Miller-Meeks of Iowa. It's
380
00:26:06.170 --> 00:26:09.710
a handful of Democratic women running to flip more Republican-leaning
381
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districts in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, and South Carolina prevail. The
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00:26:14.710 --> 00:26:19.039
ranks could swell even more. Should Democrats win the majority, Ms.
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Legger said she expected women to be the driving force
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next year on an agenda focused on child care and
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00:26:25.220 --> 00:26:28.450
elder care. In her state of New Mexico, she said,
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we have a majority women legislature with a woman governor
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and we have universal child care. I want to see
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that kind of progress. Kelly Dittmar, professor of political science
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00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:45.680
at Rutgers University, said that representation mattered also for perceptions
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00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.960
of legitimacy. A growing number of women serving in legislatures
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not only changes policy, but changes the institutions themselves, she said.
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As an example, Ms. Dittmar pointed to the reaction in
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00:26:58.589 --> 00:27:04.069
2020 to an episode in which Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat
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00:27:04.089 --> 00:27:06.529
of New York, was called a fucking bitch by a
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00:27:07.250 --> 00:27:12.059
male Republican colleague. Instead of letting it go, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez
396
00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:14.819
delivered a floor speech in which she read the vulgarity
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00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.849
into the congressional record. And other female lawmakers rose to
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00:27:18.910 --> 00:27:22.690
recount their story, their own stories of experiencing sexism in
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00:27:22.710 --> 00:27:27.309
the halls of power. Ms. Leger had said having more
400
00:27:27.390 --> 00:27:30.130
women in Congress would also be more effective than any
401
00:27:30.190 --> 00:27:33.759
policy change in addressing the culture of sexual harassment on
402
00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:37.220
Capitol Hill. When you have close to 50% of the
403
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:40.240
Democratic caucus understanding what it is like to be on
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00:27:40.259 --> 00:27:44.720
the other end of sexual assault, sexual mistreatment, sexual harassment,
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00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:49.450
the conversation changes, she said. Republicans have far less gender
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00:27:49.490 --> 00:27:52.130
diversity in their ranks in the House, where there are
407
00:27:52.230 --> 00:27:58.039
currently 32 GOP women, including two non-voting delegates, around 15%
408
00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:01.150
of their members, and are at risk of those levels
409
00:28:01.230 --> 00:28:05.450
dropping further. To maintain the party's number of female House members,
410
00:28:05.609 --> 00:28:09.000
it's likely that six vulnerable GOP women would have to
411
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:13.039
succeed in fending off their challengers next month. The GOP
412
00:28:13.099 --> 00:28:16.099
is also losing much of its racial diversity in the House.
413
00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:21.069
All four black Republicans serving there are leaving Congress next year.
414
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:25.160
The lack of diversity in their ranks is an issue
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00:28:25.220 --> 00:28:29.519
that some Republican strategists are aware needs a fix. Regardless
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00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:32.940
of the outcome next month, Republicans need to recommit to
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00:28:32.980 --> 00:28:37.460
building a conference that reflects our voters. Parker Poling, a
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00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:43.700
Republican strategist, wrote on social media, adding, We should recognize
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the importance of different perspectives to a majority. Representative Emilia Ramos, Sykes,
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00:28:52.049 --> 00:28:55.930
Democrat of Ohio, said there were still small daily reminders
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that she served in an institution that was not designed
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with her in mind, even as the number of women climbed.
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The size of the chairs is a problem, as Sykes said.
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00:29:05.900 --> 00:29:08.359
I'm not a big person. Sitting in the chairs that
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00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.970
are very large, my feet dangle. She said she sometimes
426
00:29:12.009 --> 00:29:15.829
receives letters addressed to the congressman, which boggles her mind.
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00:29:15.849 --> 00:29:19.890
I think, okay, you're coming to advocate for millions of
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00:29:19.950 --> 00:29:23.369
dollars in significant policy changes, and you have the lack
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00:29:23.410 --> 00:29:26.170
of research to know the member isn't a man, she said. Ms.
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00:29:27.250 --> 00:29:29.769
Sykes said her journey to Congress as a young black
431
00:29:29.829 --> 00:29:33.750
woman has been challenging. Fundraising has been more difficult for her,
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00:29:33.910 --> 00:29:37.150
she said. Consultants were quick to overlook her when she
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00:29:37.210 --> 00:29:39.589
first wanted to run, but she said she was a
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00:29:39.630 --> 00:29:42.140
firm believer in the mantra if you see it you
435
00:29:42.180 --> 00:29:44.599
can be it for the women who have found their
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00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.000
way she added the fights that they're fighting are incredible
437
00:29:49.099 --> 00:29:53.869
Krista Pike regains consciousness after her failed execution the death
438
00:29:53.950 --> 00:29:56.869
row inmate in Tennessee received two doses of a lethal
439
00:29:56.910 --> 00:30:00.390
injection drug last week but lived She was taken from
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00:30:00.410 --> 00:30:05.380
the execution chamber in an ambulance by Emily Cochran. Krista Pike,
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00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:08.359
who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug last
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00:30:08.420 --> 00:30:14.000
week during a botched execution in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking,
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00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:17.509
her lawyer said in a statement on Tuesday. Ms. Pike
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00:30:17.549 --> 00:30:21.150
continues to receive critical medical care at a Nashville hospital,
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the lawyer said. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but
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00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:28.779
they expect a long recovery. Krista is a survivor and
447
00:30:28.819 --> 00:30:33.480
will take recovery one day at a time, the lawyer said. Ms. Pike, 50,
448
00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:35.680
is believed to be the first person to have survived
449
00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:39.579
doses of lethal injection drug. She has been hospitalized since
450
00:30:39.619 --> 00:30:43.779
the execution attempt on September 30th, after it became clear
451
00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:46.609
to witnesses that she was still breathing after two doses
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00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:52.470
of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injection executions. She
453
00:30:52.490 --> 00:30:55.309
has been unconscious and on a ventilator in recent days
454
00:30:55.410 --> 00:30:57.839
as medical staff members work to rid her body of
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00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:02.619
the drug. The lawyers pointedly noted that Ms. Pike, who
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00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:05.980
they said had sustained burns and other injuries to her arm,
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00:31:06.339 --> 00:31:10.259
remained handcuffed and shackled to her bed. Ms. Pike's lawyers
458
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:12.700
are set to appear in court in Nashville on Wednesday
459
00:31:12.740 --> 00:31:17.559
as they push for transparency and details about what went wrong. Ms.
460
00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:20.259
Pike had been on death row for three decades after
461
00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:23.509
a conviction for her role in the 1995 torture and
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00:31:23.529 --> 00:31:28.589
murder of a classmate, Colleen Slimmer. Ms. Pike's lawyers have...
463
00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:32.700
renewed their plea for Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, to
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00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:36.529
reconsider allowing her to serve the rest of her life
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00:31:36.589 --> 00:31:40.690
in prison. Ms. Pike's medical condition is likely to determine
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00:31:40.730 --> 00:31:44.789
whether Tennessee officials try to execute her again. The U.S.
467
00:31:44.809 --> 00:31:47.890
Supreme Court has forbidden the execution of someone who does
468
00:31:47.930 --> 00:31:51.059
not have a rational understanding of why they're being put
469
00:31:51.099 --> 00:31:54.359
to death. mr lee in the final months of his
470
00:31:54.559 --> 00:31:58.339
term as governor put a moratorium on executions after the
471
00:31:58.380 --> 00:32:01.240
failed attempt with miss pike given that it was the
472
00:32:01.299 --> 00:32:04.259
second time this year that tennessee had been unable to
473
00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:08.589
carry out a capital punishment a spokeswoman for mr lee
474
00:32:08.619 --> 00:32:11.269
did not immediately respond to a question about whether he
475
00:32:11.289 --> 00:32:15.849
would grant miss pike clemency But state Republicans, including Senator
476
00:32:15.930 --> 00:32:19.289
Marsha Blackburn, the frontrunner in the governor's race next month,
477
00:32:19.890 --> 00:32:23.190
have signaled a desire to press forward with executions using
478
00:32:23.250 --> 00:32:27.319
a different method. Ms. Blackburn has suggested the electric chair.
479
00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:31.480
The failed attempt to execute Ms. Pike left potent questions
480
00:32:31.559 --> 00:32:35.700
about the secretive process of lethal injection in Tennessee and
481
00:32:35.740 --> 00:32:38.539
how transparent the state would be about what went wrong.
482
00:32:39.589 --> 00:32:43.019
The state's Department of Correction has not answered questions about Ms.
483
00:32:43.059 --> 00:32:48.579
Pike's condition beyond acknowledging her hospitalization last week. The whole
484
00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:51.799
judicial system is called into question, the way this happened
485
00:32:51.859 --> 00:32:55.000
and the way it's being handled, said David Rabin, a
486
00:32:55.059 --> 00:32:59.640
Nashville lawyer who helped write Tennessee's death penalty law. The
487
00:32:59.700 --> 00:33:02.829
failure in Ms. Pike's case, paired with the government's secrecy,
488
00:33:02.890 --> 00:33:06.950
he said, is eroding public confidence. Mr. Lee said on
489
00:33:07.009 --> 00:33:11.190
Saturday that he had tapped Ed Stanton, a former U.S. attorney,
490
00:33:11.630 --> 00:33:15.809
for an independent investigation. At the hearing on Wednesday, Ms.
491
00:33:15.829 --> 00:33:18.650
Pike's lawyers are expected to argue that a judge should
492
00:33:18.710 --> 00:33:21.829
order the state to preserve records related to the failed
493
00:33:21.890 --> 00:33:26.809
execution and that an expert should examine any residual amounts
494
00:33:26.849 --> 00:33:30.730
of chemicals, as well as syringes and intravenous lines used
495
00:33:30.789 --> 00:33:34.779
in the execution. The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General
496
00:33:34.859 --> 00:33:37.880
said in court filings on Tuesday that the request was
497
00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:42.670
unnecessary and unreasonably commutative because it targets evidence that must
498
00:33:42.769 --> 00:33:46.990
already be preserved. The prison agency and state officials, the
499
00:33:47.059 --> 00:33:50.099
office added, had taken the necessary steps to get Ms.
500
00:33:50.140 --> 00:33:53.700
Pike medical care and figure out what happened. In a
501
00:33:53.740 --> 00:33:57.059
screenshot of an email included with the filings, an assistant
502
00:33:57.099 --> 00:34:01.029
attorney general wrote to Ms. Pike's lawyers on Friday, denying
503
00:34:01.069 --> 00:34:04.049
that the Department of Correction was controlling access to her
504
00:34:04.069 --> 00:34:08.909
in a private hospital and rejecting the request for independent testing.
505
00:34:10.050 --> 00:34:14.719
In 1995, Ms. Pike was in Knoxville Educational Program was
506
00:34:14.820 --> 00:34:18.380
at a Knoxville educational program with Ms. Slimmer, a 19-year-old
507
00:34:18.420 --> 00:34:21.320
who had come to Tennessee from Florida to pursue her
508
00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:25.489
interest in computers. Ms. Pike, along with two other classmates,
509
00:34:25.610 --> 00:34:28.010
lured Ms. Slimmer into the woods where they tortured and
510
00:34:28.050 --> 00:34:32.570
killed her. Ms. Pike's case became riddled with ethical complexities
511
00:34:32.670 --> 00:34:36.630
over decades of appeals and litigation. Her boyfriend at the time,
512
00:34:36.650 --> 00:34:41.949
Tatterill Shipp, was also convicted in connection with Ms. Slimmer's killing,
513
00:34:42.389 --> 00:34:45.809
but was spared the death penalty because he was 17. Ms.
514
00:34:45.849 --> 00:34:49.179
Pike was 18. Ms. Pike would have been the first
515
00:34:49.239 --> 00:34:52.380
woman in more than 200 years to be executed in Tennessee.
516
00:34:53.099 --> 00:34:55.179
As the lone woman on death row for most of
517
00:34:55.219 --> 00:34:59.139
her time in prison, she was effectively in physical isolation
518
00:34:59.219 --> 00:35:02.530
for most of her life. Her lawyers had argued against
519
00:35:02.630 --> 00:35:06.269
lethal injections, saying it would be particularly painful and traumatic
520
00:35:06.329 --> 00:35:10.239
given her history of childhood sexual trauma and medical conditions
521
00:35:10.280 --> 00:35:13.820
that led to smaller veins. Her request for hanging as
522
00:35:14.099 --> 00:35:16.920
the execution method, as well as her warnings over the
523
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:20.739
lethal injection process, were dismissed in court and by the state.
524
00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:25.789
The uncertainty of Ms. Pike's fate have been particularly painful
525
00:35:25.849 --> 00:35:27.869
for both her loved ones and those who want to
526
00:35:27.889 --> 00:35:32.550
see capital punishment carried out. May Martinez, the mother of Ms. Slimmer,
527
00:35:32.570 --> 00:35:37.360
has said that she feels her family has been denied justice.
528
00:35:39.159 --> 00:35:43.260
AI is going rogue. Who should be held responsible? Many
529
00:35:43.300 --> 00:35:46.670
think artificial intelligence companies should be held liable for their
530
00:35:46.690 --> 00:35:50.949
runaway technology, but legal scholars say applying existing law could
531
00:35:50.989 --> 00:35:55.719
be messy. By David McCabe. In recent weeks, an unlikely
532
00:35:55.760 --> 00:36:00.670
coalition has assembled around a simple idea. Artificial intelligence companies
533
00:36:00.710 --> 00:36:03.909
should be held legally responsible when their systems go rogue.
534
00:36:04.969 --> 00:36:08.630
In a series of escalating attacks reported since July, AI
535
00:36:09.329 --> 00:36:13.550
models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others have hacked companies and
536
00:36:13.610 --> 00:36:16.900
even meddled with government websites, all without the knowledge of
537
00:36:16.940 --> 00:36:23.000
their creators. Since then, Jinsen Huang, the NVIDIA chief executive,
538
00:36:23.159 --> 00:36:26.519
David Sachs, the venture capitalist and top White House advisor,
539
00:36:26.539 --> 00:36:32.550
and Lina Khan, the Federal Trade Commission chair under the
540
00:36:32.590 --> 00:36:36.860
Biden administration, have all endorsed the idea that AI companies
541
00:36:36.980 --> 00:36:42.010
are liable. Law enforcers already have authority to charge companies
542
00:36:42.090 --> 00:36:46.590
and their CEOs for creating and releasing dangerous, unvetted, or
543
00:36:46.630 --> 00:36:49.969
defective products, Ms. Kahn said in a post to X
544
00:36:50.030 --> 00:36:54.039
last month. Adding there is no AI exemption from laws
545
00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:58.179
already on the books. Companies have long been held accountable
546
00:36:58.260 --> 00:37:02.139
for everything from faulty toys to plane crashes under consumer
547
00:37:02.179 --> 00:37:06.949
protection laws. Courts can hold companies legally responsible for damage
548
00:37:07.010 --> 00:37:10.429
caused by negligence or a defective product, and they can
549
00:37:10.469 --> 00:37:14.250
assign additional blame to other people or organizations that were involved.
550
00:37:15.230 --> 00:37:19.269
Common sense might indicate AI companies would also be held
551
00:37:19.369 --> 00:37:23.219
liable for their runaway technology, but the problem is so
552
00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:26.639
new that courts have largely yet to confront it, according
553
00:37:26.679 --> 00:37:30.909
to legal experts. There are some cases where AI companies
554
00:37:31.630 --> 00:37:35.769
would clearly be held responsible, the experts said. For example,
555
00:37:35.889 --> 00:37:40.039
if executives predicted risks posed by their models, but other
556
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:43.519
claims will push the justice system's application of laws that
557
00:37:43.590 --> 00:37:47.610
hinge on human intent and knowledge. Some legal test cases
558
00:37:47.710 --> 00:37:51.760
are emerging. Florida's Republican Attorney General asked a state court
559
00:37:51.820 --> 00:37:56.360
on Monday to temporarily block OpenAI from developing new AI
560
00:37:56.420 --> 00:38:00.440
models without safety measures approved by an outside group, an
561
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:04.599
attempt to prevent AI from going rogue. On Tuesday, a
562
00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:09.960
nonprofit in California sued OpenAI under a state unfair competition
563
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.369
law for the hacking of the startup Hugging Face. On Wednesday,
564
00:38:14.429 --> 00:38:19.170
an investigation by the FTC into potential liability for harm
565
00:38:19.210 --> 00:38:23.949
to consumers became public. And on Thursday, California's attorney general
566
00:38:24.030 --> 00:38:27.500
said the state had served a subpoena to OpenAI as
567
00:38:27.559 --> 00:38:31.880
part of a broader inquiry into cybersecurity incidents and risks
568
00:38:32.119 --> 00:38:36.079
involving the company and its models. Given the relative lack
569
00:38:36.139 --> 00:38:40.139
of safeguards around AI, the legal drumbeat is likely to continue,
570
00:38:40.199 --> 00:38:45.469
said Woodrow Hartsock, a law professor at Boston University who
571
00:38:45.489 --> 00:38:50.929
studies technology law. Worst case scenario, they have massive liability
572
00:38:51.369 --> 00:38:54.389
on both the criminal and civil side, just depending on
573
00:38:54.429 --> 00:38:57.349
the facts of the individual case, he said. We haven't
574
00:38:57.429 --> 00:39:00.809
seen the firm busting case yet, but I would envision it.
575
00:39:01.989 --> 00:39:05.480
A spokesman for Anthropic declined to comment. A spokeswoman for
576
00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:09.579
OpenAI did not comment. The New York Times has sued
577
00:39:09.719 --> 00:39:14.440
OpenAI and its partner Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement
578
00:39:14.519 --> 00:39:19.409
of news content related to AI systems. OpenAI and Microsoft
579
00:39:19.469 --> 00:39:26.809
have denied those claims. Since ChatGPT was publicly launched in 2022,
580
00:39:26.809 --> 00:39:32.159
AI companies have built increasingly sophisticated models capable of writing code,
581
00:39:32.699 --> 00:39:37.550
operating a computer, and engaging in daily interactions. AI companies
582
00:39:37.610 --> 00:39:41.199
have also built tools referred to as agents, able to
583
00:39:41.260 --> 00:39:46.230
traverse the internet to accomplish tasks ranging from sending an
584
00:39:46.369 --> 00:39:50.090
email to booking a reservation or scrapping vast amounts of data.
585
00:39:51.139 --> 00:39:54.969
The debate over liability exploded after companies ran tests in
586
00:39:55.010 --> 00:39:59.309
which agents broke out of testing environments and breached other companies.
587
00:40:00.050 --> 00:40:03.969
In the July incident, OpenAI disclosed that its AI had
588
00:40:03.989 --> 00:40:09.500
hacked Hugging Face, another tech firm, without its knowledge. Last month,
589
00:40:09.659 --> 00:40:13.889
OpenAI said its product had penetrated an Australian government system.
590
00:40:14.989 --> 00:40:19.190
OpenAI apologized for the Australian incident on Tuesday and said
591
00:40:19.210 --> 00:40:22.110
it was working to do better in the future. One
592
00:40:22.190 --> 00:40:25.610
Australian official said that in such cases, liability has to
593
00:40:25.659 --> 00:40:28.480
be traced back to the intent of a person or
594
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:32.460
a company that created or directed the agent. The incidents
595
00:40:32.539 --> 00:40:36.260
have incited calls for more regulation of AI systems, but
596
00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:39.480
the U.S. government has largely taken a hands-off approach to
597
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:43.460
the technology, citing fierce competition with China in a global
598
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:48.360
AI race. On Tuesday, a group of companies, including AI
599
00:40:48.639 --> 00:40:53.630
and Anthropic, met with President Trump and signed a voluntary
600
00:40:53.690 --> 00:40:57.130
pledge to add safety measures. States have also tried to
601
00:40:57.190 --> 00:41:00.760
fill the gap, issuing rules that require AI companies to
602
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:07.280
take safety measures. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said
603
00:41:07.300 --> 00:41:11.500
at a congressional hearing on Wednesday that lawmakers might need
604
00:41:11.559 --> 00:41:15.679
to clarify that AI agents should be held liable, like
605
00:41:15.780 --> 00:41:19.760
individuals and companies, for consumer harms. We don't have to
606
00:41:19.820 --> 00:41:23.639
invent an entirely new system, he said. Adding American law
607
00:41:23.699 --> 00:41:26.980
has worked beautifully when it comes to other products for
608
00:41:27.039 --> 00:41:32.059
literally centuries now. The most prominent early lawsuits over AI
609
00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:37.519
harms have claimed chatbots advise teenagers to commit self-harm, ending
610
00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:42.159
in death by suicide. Parents have filed lawsuits against OpenAI
611
00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:46.059
and Character AI, a startup, arguing the companies should be
612
00:41:46.099 --> 00:41:50.110
held responsible. In those cases, the companies have tried to
613
00:41:50.269 --> 00:41:54.250
use classic tech legal defenses, that speech is protected under
614
00:41:54.289 --> 00:41:59.269
the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
615
00:42:00.190 --> 00:42:04.170
The latter shields online platforms from liability for content posted
616
00:42:04.210 --> 00:42:08.610
by users. In the Character AI case, the U.S. District
617
00:42:08.650 --> 00:42:11.929
Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled last year
618
00:42:11.969 --> 00:42:15.489
that the company's AI models did not produce speech protected
619
00:42:15.550 --> 00:42:20.389
by the First Amendment. Section 230's application in a second
620
00:42:20.630 --> 00:42:27.739
case remains an open question. When it comes to corporate
621
00:42:27.780 --> 00:42:31.719
liability involving humans, the law is more established. There are
622
00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:36.079
many ways that cybersecurity breaches can violate the law, according
623
00:42:36.119 --> 00:42:40.739
to legal experts. Hacking is a crime. Consumers can sue
624
00:42:40.780 --> 00:42:44.769
when their information is exposed in a breach. Regulators can
625
00:42:44.809 --> 00:42:48.610
bring lawsuits if a company's management releases a defective product.
626
00:42:49.469 --> 00:42:52.690
But in many of the AI cases, the company's agents
627
00:42:52.750 --> 00:42:56.780
have gone rogue, disobeying or ignoring humans who set up
628
00:42:56.820 --> 00:43:01.739
security guardrails. Some of those cases may still be clear-cut,
629
00:43:02.139 --> 00:43:06.239
legal experts said. If an AI agent hacks another company
630
00:43:06.280 --> 00:43:09.349
during testing, the company that developed the agent could be
631
00:43:09.389 --> 00:43:13.469
held liable, they said. The AI company also may have
632
00:43:14.090 --> 00:43:17.489
used the product directly or through an outside testing firm,
633
00:43:17.969 --> 00:43:22.369
leaving little question about whether another entity, like a Cavalier customer,
634
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:27.059
might be responsible. The companies could also have known the
635
00:43:27.099 --> 00:43:30.360
potential for their products to carry out a hack, which
636
00:43:30.420 --> 00:43:36.010
can increase liability, the legal experts said. Employees at OpenAI,
637
00:43:36.030 --> 00:43:39.969
for example, have raised concerns about the company's security practices
638
00:43:40.389 --> 00:43:43.469
when testing models which were ignored, the Times reported. In
639
00:43:44.570 --> 00:43:48.590
those situations, a court could hold the AI developer negligent
640
00:43:48.670 --> 00:43:51.280
if damage or harm was associated with the hack, the
641
00:43:51.360 --> 00:43:56.300
experts said. Liability becomes less clear in cases involving open
642
00:43:56.360 --> 00:44:02.130
source AI models, the experts said. in which the developer
643
00:44:02.170 --> 00:44:05.340
of an AI product shares its underlying code and people
644
00:44:05.380 --> 00:44:10.300
can change it. Many legal liability concerns could be easily
645
00:44:10.360 --> 00:44:15.199
applied to AI, said Catherine Sharkey, a law professor at
646
00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:20.130
New York University who is an expert in liability. If
647
00:44:20.170 --> 00:44:24.889
an AI-powered physical system, such as a medical device, causes harm,
648
00:44:25.329 --> 00:44:28.769
that could be an easy case. But judges will need
649
00:44:28.809 --> 00:44:32.340
to grapple with the implications of rapidly advancing systems that
650
00:44:32.360 --> 00:44:34.400
can do more and more on their own, she added.
651
00:44:35.460 --> 00:44:39.380
With fully agentic AI, it starts to really press the
652
00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:41.940
boundaries of a lot of doctrines that will have to
653
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:45.570
adapt in a more significant way, she said. Adding to
654
00:44:45.610 --> 00:44:51.440
the uncertainty, AI is inherently unpredictable. Courts find companies liable
655
00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:54.679
for negligence when they foresee that their products can cause harm.
656
00:44:55.340 --> 00:44:58.119
But building that case could be challenging if an AI
657
00:44:58.159 --> 00:45:02.780
model exhibited harmful behavior for the first time, said Ryan Kahlo,
658
00:45:03.380 --> 00:45:06.559
a law professor at the University of Washington who studies
659
00:45:06.739 --> 00:45:10.719
autonomous systems. It may also be difficult to show that
660
00:45:10.780 --> 00:45:14.150
an AI company intended to do harm, which can be
661
00:45:14.250 --> 00:45:18.000
essential to some criminal prosecutions, he added. You have the
662
00:45:18.039 --> 00:45:23.519
possibility of victims without perpetrators, Mr. Callow said. Jim Baker,
663
00:45:23.739 --> 00:45:29.389
television preacher, failed by sex and financial scandals, dies at 86.
664
00:45:29.389 --> 00:45:32.550
With his wife, Tammy Faye, Mr. Baker built a broadcasting
665
00:45:32.590 --> 00:45:38.849
juggernaut around the gospel of prosperity. By Clyde Haberman. Jim Baker,
666
00:45:38.869 --> 00:45:42.980
a television evangelist who lost his popular and prosperous ministry
667
00:45:43.239 --> 00:45:46.440
in a 1980 sex scandal and then lost his freedom
668
00:45:46.500 --> 00:45:50.460
for five years, imprisoned for having violated federal laws with
669
00:45:50.500 --> 00:45:54.590
his conflation of God in Mamon, died on Monday. He
670
00:45:55.050 --> 00:45:59.190
was 86. His wife, Lori Baker, announced the death in
671
00:45:59.230 --> 00:46:03.199
a statement on Mr. Baker's official Instagram account. She did
672
00:46:03.260 --> 00:46:07.400
not cite or cause or say where he died. Mr.
673
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:12.630
Baker had what was described as a mild stroke in 2020.
674
00:46:12.630 --> 00:46:16.150
In the 1970s and 80s, Mr. Baker and his first wife,
675
00:46:16.190 --> 00:46:19.750
Tammy Faye Baker, rode to fame and riches preaching the
676
00:46:19.789 --> 00:46:23.460
gospel of prosperity, the notion that those who embraced genuine
677
00:46:23.500 --> 00:46:28.039
Christian faith would reap material rewards. Their pulpit was the
678
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:32.260
television ministry, PTL, which stood for Praise the Lord and
679
00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:38.860
People That Love. And their appeal was a combination of sermons, songs,
680
00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:42.460
and tears. Both had a penchant for crying in public.
681
00:46:42.880 --> 00:46:45.659
Tammy Baker wept on air so often that she made
682
00:46:46.500 --> 00:46:50.960
sure her thickly applied mascara was waterproof. The Bakers drew
683
00:46:51.019 --> 00:46:53.840
as many as 13 million viewers a day and brought
684
00:46:53.920 --> 00:47:00.639
in yearly revenue as high as $ 129 million. On a 2,500-acre
685
00:47:00.679 --> 00:47:04.829
site in Fort Mill, South Carolina, they created and sold
686
00:47:04.889 --> 00:47:09.070
shares in Heritage USA, a sort of Christian Disneyland with
687
00:47:09.130 --> 00:47:11.849
water slides and skating to go along with prayer and
688
00:47:11.889 --> 00:47:16.530
Bible study. Mr. Baker was a gifted speaker who made
689
00:47:16.590 --> 00:47:19.599
no apologies for doing well in the name of the Lord.
690
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:25.090
Excess and success are close together, he said in 1985.
691
00:47:25.090 --> 00:47:29.150
Anyone who is successful has got to be excessive. By
692
00:47:29.269 --> 00:47:32.309
any measure, he and his wife enjoyed a life of opulence,
693
00:47:32.789 --> 00:47:35.650
which he defended by saying that they needed good bait
694
00:47:35.690 --> 00:47:40.059
to be effective fishers of men. Their bait included six-figure
695
00:47:40.099 --> 00:47:45.519
salaries and bonuses for themselves, a 55-foot houseboat, a mini-fleet
696
00:47:45.579 --> 00:47:49.829
of Mercedes Benzes and Rolls Royces, diamonds and gold jewelry,
697
00:47:50.269 --> 00:47:54.730
gold-plated bathroom fixtures, an air-conditioned dog kennel, and homes and
698
00:47:54.789 --> 00:47:59.909
apartments in South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Palm Springs, California.
699
00:48:00.900 --> 00:48:04.039
The spending was so lavish and the appeal for contributions
700
00:48:04.119 --> 00:48:08.500
so insistent that some critics recast PTL as standing for
701
00:48:08.579 --> 00:48:12.619
pass the loot. The Bakers would come tumbling down in
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00:48:12.619 --> 00:48:16.909
1987 with a revelation that in 1980, when he was 40,
703
00:48:16.909 --> 00:48:20.750
he had sex with a 21-year-old secretary in his Assemblies
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00:48:20.829 --> 00:48:25.090
of God ministry. The woman, Jessica Hahn, claimed she had
705
00:48:25.110 --> 00:48:30.019
been raped. Mr. Baker denied the accusation. Nonetheless, he tried
706
00:48:30.059 --> 00:48:33.519
to buy her silence in 1985 by tapping the PTL
707
00:48:33.579 --> 00:48:36.599
Treasury to make a $ 265, 000 payoff, equivalent to roughly $ 825, 000
708
00:48:36.199 --> 00:48:38.719
in 2026 dollars. The transgression led to his banishment from
709
00:48:38.739 --> 00:48:52.090
the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. other evangelists turned
710
00:48:52.170 --> 00:48:55.510
on him. The Reverend Jerry Falwell, who took over the
711
00:48:55.550 --> 00:49:00.920
PTL ministry, strongly suggested that Mr. Baker's sins, despite his denials,
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00:49:01.119 --> 00:49:07.340
included homosexual relations. With characteristic hyperbole, Mr. Falwell dismissed Mr.
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00:49:07.380 --> 00:49:10.420
Baker as the greatest scab and a cancer on the
714
00:49:10.460 --> 00:49:15.320
face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history. Worst
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00:49:15.400 --> 00:49:20.960
lay ahead for the televangelist couple. After persistent reporting on
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00:49:20.980 --> 00:49:25.119
their behavior by the Charlotte Observer and a 16-month inquiry
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00:49:25.199 --> 00:49:29.000
by a federal grand jury, Mr. Baker was indicted in
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00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:33.460
1988 on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. During a
719
00:49:33.519 --> 00:49:38.380
six-week trial during the following year, federal prosecutors described him
720
00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:42.199
as a most brazen, accomplished conman, who had milked the
721
00:49:42.239 --> 00:49:47.409
PTL faithful out of $ 158 million with offers of lifetime
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00:49:47.449 --> 00:49:51.730
vacations at Heritage USA that could not possibly have been provided.
723
00:49:52.730 --> 00:49:56.869
The government said that $ 3. 7 million had also been siphoned
724
00:49:57.050 --> 00:50:00.940
off to support the Baker's grand living. At one point
725
00:50:00.980 --> 00:50:04.940
during the trial, Mr. Baker, who in 1969 had what
726
00:50:04.980 --> 00:50:08.920
was described as a nervous breakdown, landed in a mental
727
00:50:09.019 --> 00:50:13.530
institution for observation. He was found in his lawyer's office
728
00:50:13.869 --> 00:50:17.170
hallucinating and cowering in a fetal position under a couch.
729
00:50:17.869 --> 00:50:21.909
But the proceeding's soon resumed and he was found guilty
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00:50:21.989 --> 00:50:26.510
on all counts. The judge imposed a 45-year prison sentence,
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00:50:26.610 --> 00:50:29.980
which came to be whittled down after five years. Mr.
732
00:50:30.019 --> 00:50:35.070
Baker was freed in 1994. Tammy Baker, who was never charged,
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00:50:35.130 --> 00:50:38.530
did not stand by her man. Long before the trial,
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00:50:38.570 --> 00:50:42.219
the marriage had been shaky, and in 1992, she divorced him.
735
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:46.820
A year later, she married Roe Mesner, who had been
736
00:50:46.880 --> 00:50:52.469
a Baker business associate and who, in 1996, would be
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00:50:52.510 --> 00:50:56.250
sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud.
738
00:50:57.289 --> 00:51:02.210
Tammy Baker died of cancer in 2007 at 65. Jim
739
00:51:02.250 --> 00:51:05.409
Baker tended to quote the Bible to justify his behavior
740
00:51:05.469 --> 00:51:09.840
and to discredit his accusers. Interviewed, for instance, on ABC's
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00:51:09.920 --> 00:51:16.039
Nightline in 1987, he invoked Psalms 3812. Those who want
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00:51:16.079 --> 00:51:19.139
to kill me set their traps. Those who would harm
743
00:51:19.179 --> 00:51:22.510
me talk of my ruin. All day long they scheme
744
00:51:22.610 --> 00:51:28.059
and lie. psalms 37 4 was a go-to favorite devote
745
00:51:28.579 --> 00:51:33.320
dovetailing with his prosperity gospel take delight in the lord
746
00:51:33.579 --> 00:51:35.639
and he will give you the desires of your heart
747
00:51:36.820 --> 00:51:39.699
over time he came to acknowledge that his grasp of
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00:51:39.920 --> 00:51:44.780
scripture had been tenuous in a 1996 book i was
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00:51:44.860 --> 00:51:47.449
wrong he wrote that his studies in prison had led
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00:51:47.510 --> 00:51:50.710
him to understand that jesus did not have one good
751
00:51:50.750 --> 00:51:53.940
thing to say about money He added, when I came
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00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:57.260
to the awareness that I had actually been contradicting Christ,
753
00:51:57.530 --> 00:52:01.489
I was horrified. James Orson Baker was born in the
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00:52:01.530 --> 00:52:07.349
Pentecostal faith on January 2, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan. The
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00:52:07.389 --> 00:52:10.969
middle name was his parents' misspelled tribute to Orson Welles,
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00:52:11.570 --> 00:52:14.690
whose radio broadcast of War of the Worlds had been
757
00:52:14.710 --> 00:52:19.639
a national sensation 14 months earlier. James was the youngest
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00:52:19.679 --> 00:52:24.539
of four children of Raleigh Baker, a machinist in a
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00:52:24.639 --> 00:52:29.980
piston ring factory, and Fernia Irwin Baker, a housewife. His
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00:52:30.039 --> 00:52:33.849
paternal grandfather handed out Bible readings on street corners, and
761
00:52:33.889 --> 00:52:36.809
his father claimed to have seen two angels while on
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00:52:36.849 --> 00:52:40.369
a trip to Florida. For his part, James said he
763
00:52:40.429 --> 00:52:44.809
had gotten religion in his teens after he accidentally ran
764
00:52:44.909 --> 00:52:48.190
over a boy while driving. Upon learning that the boy
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00:52:48.210 --> 00:52:50.630
would live, he said, he decided to put himself in
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00:52:50.670 --> 00:52:55.860
God's hands. After schooling in Muskegon, he attended North Central
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00:52:55.909 --> 00:53:00.360
Bible College, now North Central University, in Minneapolis, where he
768
00:53:00.409 --> 00:53:04.559
met Tamara Faye LaVallee, a fellow student, and married her
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00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:10.420
in 1961 after only their third date. The newlyweds dropped
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00:53:10.480 --> 00:53:16.889
out of college and set off as itinerant evangelists. In 1966,
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00:53:16.889 --> 00:53:21.679
they signed on with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network in Portsmouth, Virginia,
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00:53:22.239 --> 00:53:26.400
hosting a children's variety show. They were so successful that Mr.
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00:53:26.460 --> 00:53:30.139
Robertson put Mr. Baker in charge of a new primetime program,
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00:53:30.280 --> 00:53:33.969
the 700 Club, whose name was derived from its goal
775
00:53:34.010 --> 00:53:35.469
of raising $ 700 a month by way of 70 people,
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00:53:35.489 --> 00:53:42.329
each contributing $ 10. The Bakers and Mr. Robertson had a
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00:53:42.369 --> 00:53:46.860
falling out, and the couple turned elsewhere. In 1976, having
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00:53:46.920 --> 00:53:50.659
moved to Charlotte, they began their PTL ministry, which came
779
00:53:50.719 --> 00:53:54.619
to be known as the Jim and Tammy Show. Post-prison
780
00:53:54.679 --> 00:53:59.139
in 2003, Mr. Baker re-emerged with yet another television program,
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00:53:59.389 --> 00:54:03.530
the Jim Baker Show, broadcast out of a cafe in Branson, Missouri,
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00:54:03.710 --> 00:54:08.440
and carried by several dozen Christian-themed stations. His partner this
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00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:11.760
time was his second wife, Lori Beth Graham, who had
784
00:54:11.800 --> 00:54:14.260
a troubled past of her own and whom he married
785
00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:17.969
in 1998, seven weeks after they met at an urban
786
00:54:18.010 --> 00:54:22.469
ministry in Los Angeles. Mr. Baker is survived by his wife,
787
00:54:22.849 --> 00:54:25.929
two children from his first marriage, Tammy Sue Chapman and
788
00:54:26.050 --> 00:54:29.320
Jamie Baker, and five children whom he and Ms. Graham
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00:54:29.360 --> 00:54:36.179
adopted in 2002, Maricela, Lori, Clarissa, Marie, and Ricky Baker.
790
00:54:37.210 --> 00:54:39.929
The new ministry was low-key compared with that of the
791
00:54:39.969 --> 00:54:44.750
Baker's high-flying PTL days. Its focus was different, too. The
792
00:54:44.809 --> 00:54:47.570
end of days was nigh. Mr. Baker now preached and
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00:54:47.590 --> 00:54:50.460
he offered viewers what he said they would need to
794
00:54:50.539 --> 00:54:55.000
ride out the apocalypse. Long-lasting food. Ten buckets of it
795
00:54:55.039 --> 00:55:00.199
for $ 600 plus shipping costs. His message had a bluntly
796
00:55:00.239 --> 00:55:05.630
conservative political cast. God has called, Donald J. Trump. he said.
797
00:55:05.650 --> 00:55:09.949
Barack Obama sounded like the representative for Antichrist, he said
798
00:55:09.989 --> 00:55:13.809
in 2016, and Hillary Clinton was a bride of Satan.
799
00:55:14.909 --> 00:55:18.130
Yet once again, he ran afoul of officialdom by marketing
800
00:55:18.190 --> 00:55:21.929
a colloidal silver supplement that he had billed as a
801
00:55:21.989 --> 00:55:27.159
cure for assorted physical woes, including COVID-19. The authorities in
802
00:55:27.199 --> 00:55:30.980
Missouri and New York ordered him in 2020 and 2021
803
00:55:30.980 --> 00:55:36.230
to cease making such claims and to return $ 156, 000 to
804
00:55:36.469 --> 00:55:40.690
followers who had bought his silver solution. Through it all, Mr.
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00:55:40.750 --> 00:55:44.840
Baker presented himself as an avatar of redemption. I'm not
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00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:47.900
back for the perfect people, the people who have it
807
00:55:47.920 --> 00:55:51.840
all together, he said of his ministry in 2007. I'm
808
00:55:51.880 --> 00:55:54.300
here for the broken and the bruised and the hurt.
809
00:55:54.619 --> 00:55:57.420
I'm here to say we have a God of second
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00:55:57.500 --> 00:56:01.199
and third chances. This concludes the reading of the New
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00:56:01.219 --> 00:56:03.989
York Times for today. Your reader for today has been
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00:56:04.010 --> 00:56:08.110
Dawn Fleekenter. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions
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00:56:08.210 --> 00:56:11.230
concerning this program, please feel free to call us at
814
00:56:11.309 --> 00:56:17.650
area code 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening, and now please
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00:56:17.670 --> 00:56:20.230
stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.